


bridges

by celeste9



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Extended Scene, First Meetings, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Movie: Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Post-Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Shippy Gen, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-11
Updated: 2018-03-11
Packaged: 2019-03-30 01:51:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13940010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: Two pilots finally meet, in the company of their favorite droid.





	bridges

**Author's Note:**

> Continuation of their first meeting in TLJ because I needed to write these two and I also really needed to finish something. :) Thank you to Petra for reading it over!

Rey is crouched on the floor of the _Millennium Falcon_ with BB-8, an excited murmur of voices all around her, when she hears a soft but deliberate, “Hi,” and looks up to see a man, dark-haired and handsome, in a black leather jacket.

“Hi,” Rey says, a bit awkward as she gets to her feet.

“I’m Poe,” he says, holding out his hand, and Rey glances down briefly before she takes it.

 _Poe,_ she remembers. BB-8’s Poe, the pilot, the one whose jacket Finn kept. She saw him, with the map, on D’Qar.

“Rey,” she says, and shakes his hand. His grip is firm and his palm feels warm and calloused against her own.

“I know,” Poe says, and Rey feels the smile overtake her face.

 _I know,_ he says, like he does, like he knows her, like she matters. Like she’s someone.

“I don’t think we…” she starts, and has to stop.

Poe is still gently smiling at her and Rey thinks fleetingly that she rather likes his face. “We didn’t meet before, if that’s what you mean,” he says. “But I’ve heard a lot about you.”

BB-8 chirps from by their knees and Rey smiles at him, only to notice that Poe is doing the same. “Thanks, Beebee-Ate,” Rey says.

“Finn, too,” Poe says. “He would’ve torn down the whole First Order by himself to get to you. I figured you must be pretty special.”

Rey glances over at Finn, where he sits by the sleeping injured girl. Rose? Rey thinks her name was Rose. The relief that Finn is okay still lingers, making everything feel a bit easier. “I’m not sure that’s true.”

Poe grips her upper arm in a gesture that’s overly familiar but somehow not unwelcome. “Hey, you just saved all our lives back there. No one could have done what you did. So, yeah. I’d say you’re something.”

“I was just--”

“Hey,” Poe says, drawing his hand back, and he is so warm and genuine. “Take the compliment. I mean it.”

BB-8 chatters again and Rey can’t help her laugh.

“Take it from him then,” Poe says.

Rey brushes her hair behind her ear. “I almost know you, too.”

“Yeah?”

She nods to BB-8. “He told me all about you, while we were on Jakku. His pilot. Couldn’t wait to find you.”

“Well,” Poe says, his expression so soft and fond. He rubs the top of BB-8’s domed head-piece. “He’s my best pal.”

BB-8 beeps in agreement.

“I’m glad you aren’t actually dead,” Rey says, and then feels like an absolute idiot.

Except Poe is laughing. “Same here. I enjoy being alive, as a matter of fact.”

Rey watches him and thinks that she can see why Finn likes him. He isn’t like anyone Rey has ever met before; he is open and joyful and full of energy. He looks at you and it feels like he genuinely cares.

She glances over at Finn again, who is grinning in her direction. He gives her a thumb’s up. Rey rolls her eyes.

Poe looks over then, too, and gives Finn a little wave. “You two have a hell of a lot to catch up on,” he says.

It feels strange, how much has happened since they last saw each other, Rey thinks. It has all happened so quickly that Rey hasn’t had time to process it; maybe it will help, talking to Finn. Luke and Kylo Ren and Snoke.

The bond.

Maybe she will keep that to herself. She is afraid of how they will react.

She looks at Poe and wonders if he would still look at her like she matters, like he cares about her, if he knew. She would rather not find out.

“Yes,” Rey says. It feels inadequate somehow but she doesn’t know what else to say.

She is so tired, and she thinks she hadn’t realized it until now.

Poe lifts a hand and touches her shoulder briefly. “Looks like that hurts. Let me clean it up for you?”

Rey dips her head down to look and the throbbing ache seems to register for the first time. Hadn’t seemed important before. “Oh,” she says. “The red guards…”

Poe’s eyes narrow. “Part of that catching up thing?”

“There’s a lot.”

“I can imagine. Come on.” Poe nudges her and Rey realizes there isn’t any point to refusing; she doesn’t think Poe will accept that.

BB-8 rolls along behind them as they walk; Rey has the impression the droid isn’t eager to be away from Poe. Poe leads them through the corridor to a tiny refresher near the crew quarters.

“How did you know where to go?” Rey asks as she sits on the edge of a little cabinet that she is afraid might collapse if she puts all her weight on it.

Poe grabs a medkit before wetting a cloth and dabbing at her arm. “Oh, I know this ship a little.”

Rey arches an eyebrow and Poe smiles at her.

“From when I was a kid. My parents used to visit with Captain Solo and the general every now and then. They knew each other from the Rebellion.” He cleans her wound with something that stings a little; Rey bites her lip.

“I didn’t know that.”

“Well, how would you?”

The thought suddenly occurs to Rey that Poe and Ben Solo must be around the same age. They must have known each other, if Poe knew Han and Leia well enough to know the _Millennium Falcon._ She wonders if he knows now what Ben Solo became.

Everything is so complicated.

“Sorry,” Poe says, perhaps mistaking Rey’s expression for pain.

Rey shakes her head. “No, it’s fine.” Poe was actually exceedingly gentle; Rey had never had someone take such care with her before.

It felt nice.

He wraps a gauze bandage around her wound. “Much better, wouldn’t you say, Beebee-Ate?”

The droid expresses the affirmative in binary, adding that Rey should take better care of her delicate organic body.

“I’ll try,” Rey promises, while Poe laughs softly.

“He tells me that all the time. You really made an impression on him, you know.”

“He made one on me,” Rey says, and touches BB-8’s smooth metal body.

She feels a flush rise in her skin when she looks back up to see Poe watching her, that fondness in his expression that he had previously directed at BB-8.

“I guess I’m kind of monopolizing your time,” he says. “Lots of other people who want to see you.”

 _Not that many,_ Rey thinks. And then she says, “I don’t mind.”

Poe really has the loveliest smile.

**_End_ **

**Author's Note:**

> I'm on Tumblr over [here.](http://serceleste.tumblr.com) :)


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